Victory Over The Hills!

That's right, the hills are done and ready for action. A little Elmer's Glue-All on the bald spots, as well as here and there, and adding various colors of static grass and flock, and there you have it. I may be adding patches of grass to my boards soon (assuming I can get newspaper to lay under them to catch any excess) so that everything will match up. Until then I'll be plotting my next project. I just don't know what that is yet. Since I'm selling off my Malifaux stuff this Monday, maybe it'll be some Dust stuff in a week or so. Only time will tell.

Hills Progress- Almost Done

Well, the rest of the day yesterday (everything up until the rather violent thunderstorm) was spent finishing up the hills. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, despite missing a couple patches of color.

I followed the usual terrain recipe. once the hills had dried to their base boards, I covered them with glue. Part way through the process I ran out of wood glue, so I turned to Elmer's Glue-All. This stuff has never failed me before, it's just not my first pick for terrain. One at a time I slathered them with glue, then sprinkled them with ballast.

You may note in the picture that there were a couple of spots the glue didn't reach, and therefore the ballast did not adhere. This was only a minor annoyance to me, as the temperature outside was, let's say oppressive. I continued forward on my quest to finish these terrain pieces which have tormented me for the last few weeks.

A coat of brown paint later. Now you really can't tell that there are patches where I missed a little texture

Finally, the drybrush. I was kind of foolish and photographed them on my carpet, but at this point I had finished cleaning up outside, and I wasn't really keen on stepping out into the oven that was Fairfax City yesterday. Hopefully you can see everything just fine. I missed a couple of spots with paint, so I'm going to be covering them with flock and static grass tomorrow (probably tomorrow). I can't wait to break out these bad boys on Tuesday.

Don't Mind Me, Just Another Photo Dump

Hill Progress!

After a bit of a bummer (getting out of Malifaux) and a bit of elation (getting an offer on the minis) I ran over to my parents' house to borrow my Dad's jigsaw.

Locked and loaded.

I was able to clean up the bases for the hills, cutting them down to size. They were a bit rough around the edges...

Inverted, blurry, and low-resolution. I'm sorry.

...so I cleaned them up with a rasp and a file. Now they're drying in a stack on my painting table.

Yep, I'm a biology major.

So, forward progress on the hills. In a few hours I'll texture them, then paint.

Goodbye MalifauX

This is less of an entry, and more of an image hosting thing. I'm using this as a place to show off my MalifauX minis so I can sell them. Of course, this is also a perfect opportunity to show off some old toys.

First up is my original crew, the Swamp Gremlins. I was hoping they'd be fun to play, but unfortunately they were just frustrating.

I then turned to the Viktorias, but wasn't really thrilled with their play style.

These fellows are the other outcasts I have painted.

Next up came Rasputina, but truth be told I really only bought her to paint her.

The Ortegas. This is the crew I decided on running, but then work changed my schedule and I haven't been able to get a game in in two years.

The Pandora crew I truly bought just to paint, and they are by far the best looking minis I have for this system.

...And finally, those last few minis that never saw the tender touch of the brush.

That's about it for this little trip down memory lane. Hopefully this is goodbye to minis that now only take up space.

Terrain Mania Continues!!!

Lacking any miniatures to paint at present, my focus has turned to terrain. I say you can never have too much variety in your terrain box(es), so I have been scrounging every unfinished project I can get my hands on and, well, finishing them. The theme of today was tank traps. I've had some lying around forever, so I figured I'd slap some paint on them and get them ready for play. I started by spray painting a bunch of old plastic Games Workshop tank traps I had laying around silver. After that I hit them with Tamiya Smoke, and set them aside to dry. Once they were ready I noticed that some of the traps have a hard time staying upright. This prompted me to scurry off to the craft store to acquire some wood! I went ahead and grabbed a few extra pieces to glue rocks to, as should I want to put together a desert board rock formations will be vital to provide cover to the forces involved.

Once home I glued the tank traps as well as assorted rocks to the wood I had just purchased.

Following that I slapped down some wood glue on the bases and coated them with ballast.

Once the wood glue had dried (an hour or two later, I was kind of overly generous with the glue) I layed down a layer of brown paint over the terrain pieces. The bases of the tank traps got as neat a coat as I could manage with the rather sub-par brush I was wielding, and the entirety of the rock formations were base coated.

Again being a touch generous with this layer (you would have thought I'd have learned) i waited a few hours for the brown to dry. Playing a lot of King of Fighters XIII helped quite a bit here. Once the bases finally were done, I drybrushed them with khaki paint.

Mission accomplished. I've got a few more pieces of terrain ready for action, and my board is getting closer and closer to having enough sci-fi terrain. This stuff will be useful in both 40k and (maybe) Dust Warfare. I'll be picking up some SSU stuff for Dust assuming somebody out there wants to buy a whole bunch of MalifauX minis cheap.

In related news, my poor hills still languish in uncompletedness by my window sill. I need to get in touch with my dad to borrow his jigsaw to finish those bases. Until then, this will be their state:

Breaking Radio Silence: Lots of Progress

It's been a while, eh? Not that I've been lounging around, no, quite the opposite! First thing's first; my Zombiesmith grey aliens. Well, actually they're more the classic "little green men", but the point is now they have a ride. The UFO is known as the "Area 51 Flying Saucer, but I forget who made it. If you know please comment and I'll give the manufacturer their proper credit.

Now I'd like to find a skirmish game to use them with. Especially against the women from Venus I found a while ago.

Unfortunately the glue I used to attach the windows fogged them over. It's an annoyance, but not worth buying another kit.

My next project (and the one consuming most of my time) is the expansion of my new board. The original is starting to show its age and now is the time to upgrade. I started the project with gluing some trees I had lying around that I originally bought for 15mm gaming to some Games Workshop titan bases. The trees were far too big to be used in either Hordes of the Things or Song of Blades and Heroes, so they were pressed into service on my new board.

I then covered the bases with medium railroad ballast using Elmer's Wood Glue. Let me tell you, this stuff works wonders. I've yet to have anything I attached using this stuff come apart, and it goes on easily with a brush and a little water.

Next outside for a coat of brown paint. The stuff I use is as close as I could find to Vallejo "Earth" at Wal-Mart. I know, boo hiss for supporting a "big box store", but there's just not a mom and pop hardware store around here.

After the paint dried I drybrushed the closest color I could find to "Khaki" over the bases. This approach has given me a board that looks much closer to a desert than I had originally cared for, but over time the color has grown on me. Besides, the original game this stuff was assembled for is MalifauX. If that game doesn't take place in a desert no game does.

I kind of miss playing MalifauX, but oh, well. More eBay fodder for if I get into Dust Warfare. I do however once again digress.

I also went through and repainted my original forest templates from my first board. There was already static grass on the boards which kind of made them look a touch sub-optimal. I'm not sure if these are going to make the final cut. I'm leaning toward yes as I just don't want to go through and cut out more templates. You see, Demitra's jigsaw is a touch, well he uses the term "classic". This means the blade is dull and you have to push it with both hands in order to get it to cut. As I like my fingers where they are, I don't think we'll be utilizing that particular tool any time soon. In fact, that particular tool has stalled our current "making hills so that the table isn't totally flat and boring" project. I'll have more on that in a later post, but just know that they're in the works.

Next it was on to expanding the board from its original 4'x4' size to 6'x4' so that games like Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and maybe one day Dust can be played on it. This job, while the easiest, would prove to be by far the most time consuming. The boards (made of MDF- ask for it at your local hardware store if you don't know what it is) were first covered in wood glue. You'll need to thin it out a very little bit to get it to go on evenly. Once that's accomplished, sprinkle your railroad ballast over the board, making sure to coat the whole thing. Now the boring bit; leave it alone for several hours to dry. I suggest playing video games during this time. Once the glue is set, go over it with your base paint using a paint roller like you'd use for your walls. This makes sure the paint both goes on fast and evenly. Now it's time for more waiting. The paint must be given plenty of time to dry, or the next step will only make a mess.

Grab your can of paint you intend to use as a highlight and a large paintbrush. Like painting your house large. A cheapo one will do the job just fine, as you're about to destroy it. Drybrush the table. be sure you get a good, even covering. This will keep your table from looking all streaky (like a few of mine do). As I said before, this will probably destroy your brush, so don.t invest in a good one. In fact, the stiffer bristles of cheap brushes actually help this part.

That's it, you now have a fully painted table!

You may, as I have done with this 3'x3' table, wish to add patches of static grass and/or flock of varying shapes and sizes to the finished board. Be sure to attach this with Elmer's Glue-All as wood glue will turn everything yellow.

One final thing:

The long wait is finally over. just a couple of days ago my Candy and Cola miniature for Super Dungeon Explore arrived. Again, finally. The wait time and total lack of communication on the part of Sodapop Miniatures was totally unacceptable. At least I eventually got my miniature.

Well, here she is! all painted up and ready to whack some Kobolds.

Now to wait for the weather to break (the humidity is nightmarish) so I can varnish her.

More on Games I Will Never Play

On a whim ( a bored whim), I threw together some status tokens for Songs of Our Ancestors. It's a game I've yet to actually play, so I kind of threw them together. There is apparently no need for a "sentry duty" token, as your entire squad is either on it or not. It's a bit of a waste of time and paper throwing them together, but what will be will be.

I ended up spending this month's gaming money on Quar as well. I know, I was going to spend it on Infinity minis, but Zombiesmith is having a 15% off sale before they raise their prices in July, so I figured I'd grab some minis before it's too late. Especially with the way Games Workshop is attempting to force me out of playing their games, and with my newfound lacking love for Privateer Press games.

Those are thoughts for another post, however. For now I'll just wait for my packages to arrive. Word to the wise; never order directly through Sodapop Miniatures- their customer service is sub-par to say the least. Again, another rant for another post. For now, seeyuh!